


The Substitute

by glindathegood



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Teacher AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-10-24 17:35:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10746540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glindathegood/pseuds/glindathegood
Summary: Belle French is new to town in a temporary job as a substitute teacher. Mr Gold is a seasoned (and cynical) teacher at the same high school. They get off to a rocky start, but things don't always turn out the way you expect.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is just sort of a teaser to see if anyone is interested. It's my first time writing outside of Rumbelle Secret Santa, so please leave comments, it would be so very much appreciated!

The morning was quiet. Though the occasional students passed by, they spoke in low, tired voices that were only heard as murmurs behind the closed door. It was a Wednesday morning, and Belle French sat at an unfamiliar desk in an unfamiliar classroom in an unfamiliar school. She had only just moved to Storybrooke from another just as obscure town. Belle grew up there, and couldn’t even remember leaving for more than a few days at a time. Her entire life had been centered around that quiet little village for twenty eight years. Almost thirty years of her life were gone, wasted in a small minded community with her small minded boyfriend. Recent events had reminded her that she wasn’t stuck there, that her life was open to adventure. Ruby said she needed a change of pace, and that was exactly what Belle found in Storybrooke. It wasn’t much of a change, actually, but it was something. Baby steps, she had told herself.  
Now Belle found herself in this unknown environment, thrown into a teaching position in the middle of the school year. The middle of the week, even. The job was temporary, but perhaps that was all the better. More opportunity for Belle to move on with her life as she had failed to in previous years.  
The commencement bell rang and wrenched Belle out of her daydream rather abruptly. Using the ancient computer in front of her as a mirror, she checked her appearance one last time before rushing to tidy up her papers. She stood and tried to lean against the desk naturally just as students began to trickle in. They made their way to their seats rather mechanically, glancing at Belle and each other in turn. The second bell rang, the shuffling in seats ceased, and Belle cleared her throat.  
“Hello everyone, my name is Miss French and I’ll be your English teacher for the rest of the year while Mrs. Nolan is out on maternity leave,” she said, doing her best to look enthusiastic. All of that nervous energy had to go somewhere.  
The students had mixed reactions. Some looked bored, others sympathetic, and a select few muttered hellos in return.  
“I hope we’ll get along,” she added after a moment, and was greeted only by the creaking of unsteady chairs and desks.   
“They’ll warm up to you,” she told herself, though rather uncertain as she looked at the blank stares in her direction.  
“Right. Well, would someone help me pass out these books?”  
_____________________________________________________________________________  
Belle managed to make it through the morning periods with reasonable confidence, and the kids seemed to perk up as the day went on. Of course, Belle’s energy went in the opposite direction, trickling out of her with each sentence. By lunch she was in desperate need of caffeine, and the iced tea in her lunch bag wasn’t going to cut it. So she took the risk of leaving the safe haven of her classroom in search of the teachers lounge and a coffee maker.  
It was practically like walking into the cafeteria on the first day of school. Every teacher seemed to have assigned tables as well as assigned friends, and very few people took notice of Belle as she entered the room. Truthfully, that bit. It was a reminder of her own high school days, when no one except Ruby seemed to care for the class bookworm. Only Ruby so much as acknowledged her presence. At least, before Gaston. Gaston. No, Belle pushed that thought from her mind and zeroed in on the coffeepot that caught her eye, right on the counter. Unsurprisingly, it was empty, but Belle didn’t mind doing a mundane task like that. Soon enough, she was standing near the window, carefully sipping coffee from a styrofoam cup.   
She was left to her thoughts, which was a much needed break. Her uneasiness had faded into a new sense of possibility, and she almost made up her mind to go talk to another teacher when a man walked in.  
He was older than Belle (just how much she couldn’t tell), and though he walked with a cane, his stride had a certain swagger to it. Though a sneer was painted across his face, he wasn’t unattractive- quite the opposite, in fact. His entire demeanor was a bit arrogant and intimidating. The other staff members obviously felt the same, as they all seemed to shift uncomfortably as he entered the room. Only Belle’s gaze stayed on him. She felt her heart beat quicken as he started walking toward her, and almost panicked when he looked at her. They narrowly avoided eye contact, and Belle stared at the contents of her cup trying not to blush.   
When she gained the courage to look up again, the man was pouring himself a cup of coffee. He lifted the mug to his lips and blew gently before taking a sip. His face changed to a grimace immediately, and he set the coffee down with a decided clink on the counter.  
“Did you make this?” he asked with a blasé expression. Belle’s eyes widened, and she blinked at him a few times before she fully processed that he was speaking to her.  
“Um, yeah- yes. Yes I did,” she scrambled to get the words out, but still managed to correct her blunder and sound professional. Or at least she hoped. The man looked unimpressed.  
“Well, in future, please leave the coffee making to someone more competent. This is hardly more than dirty water,” he told her pointedly. He picked up the coffeepot and dumped its contents into the sink without another look or glance to Belle. His blunt manner perplexed her, but did her best to recover.  
“I can make more, if you’d like- I’ll make it stronger,” she offered, doing her best to sound helpful.  
“No, I’ll do it myself. You’ve done enough,” he sighed, still without looking at her. Her confusion slowly melted into irritation as he proceeded to make more coffee with that same disdainful expression.  
“I was only trying to help, I’m sorry if I somehow off-” Belle began to explain, but the approach of a new figure cut her off.  
“Ah, Miss French, I was hoping to find you here. I see you’ve met Mr. Gold,” said Principal Mills. She looked between the two with a honeyed smile that seemed entirely too put on.   
The school principal always seemed to have a certain air about her, like she was trying too hard to be friendly, meanwhile barely masking her less forgiving attitude. It was off putting, to say the least, and Belle found herself shifting uncomfortably. She felt completely trapped between the principal and this man, that apparently was called Mr. Gold. With a glance in his direction, Belle could tell that he didn’t seem to care for Mrs. Mills any more than she did. His lip seemed to curl of its own accord as he spoke.  
“Yes, we were just… getting acquainted,” he said coolly. “However, I was just leaving.” He hadn’t finished making his coffee, but he still made a move to side step the two women. Mrs Mills, however, had other ideas and blocked his path.  
“Not so fast Gold,” she told him with a cautioning look. “I’m afraid I’ve neglected Miss French, as I haven’t had much free time since she joined us. I was going to ask for a volunteer to give her a tour, but since you two have met, I’ll leave that honor to you.”  
“Mrs Mills, I am a very busy man.”  
“I’m aware of that, Gold, but I think you can manage to find time to help out Miss French here,” she retorted, and Belle thought she saw a hint of a smirk. “Well, I have one of the usual delinquents waiting in my office, so I really must be going,” she added after they were both silent for a moment. With a simple not to each of them, she left.  
“Look, you don’t have to do that. I’m sure I’ll manage without the grand tour,” Belle assured him after a moment of tense silence. She really could have used the help, but not if it meant inconveniencing Mr. Gold. Their first encounter had hardly been favorable, and she did not want to see any more of him than she had to.  
“Oh no, Miss French. You’ll learn soon enough that it’s best to do what Principal Mills asks of you. Be in my room at 3:15 exactly, and we can get it over with,” he told her, finally taking his leave. Belle let out a long sigh, now left standing awkwardly alone. It seemed she would have to face the beast.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Belle gets a tour of the school, a piece of her past comes back to haunt her, and Gold surprises her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the wait! With school ending I had a lot on my mind and not a lot of time or energy to write, but hopefully I'll have more consistent updates over the summer! Enjoy!

The rest of the day passed in an unchanging blur. Despite a few minor blunders on her part (she made a mental note to watch her articulation in a room full of teenagers) the last four periods of the day went smoothly. The worst of it was over, or at least that’s what Belle thought until she remembered the tour. She had promised to be in Mr. Gold’s room at 3:15, and it was now 3:19. Though it was only a few minutes, Belle had a feeling that Mr. Gold wasn’t the patient type. Belle urgently gathered up a few items in her bag and rushed out of the room, regretting the heels she chose to wear today.  
Belle found his room without much problem, at least, having scribbled the number on a sticky note the moment she got back to class. If she had to do this, she would do it right. The door was wide open, but Belle didn’t feel comfortable going any farther than the entryway uninvited. The room was larger than Belle’s, with uniform rows of desks. There weren’t any of the inspirational posters Mrs Nolan had left, just maps and labels on cabinets. It was pristine, even, except for the back counter which was absolutely cluttered with a random assortment of items. Mr. Gold sat at his desk, which was also covered with knick knacks and papers, grading what appeared to be a stack of essays. The amount of red marks on just that page was astonishing to Belle. After a moment, she cleared her throat.  
“You’ll have to wait a moment, Miss French,” he said without looking up. His eyes didn’t even so much as flicker in her direction. A long moment passed before he sighed and flipped back to the front page to write a big F on the top. Finally, he looked up at Belle.  
“As you can see, I have better things to do than wait on you, Miss French. I expect you’ll be more prompt next time,” he chided her. Belle felt like an embarrassed student instead of a fellow teacher.  
“Those poor kids.” she thought.  
“Of course. I apologize,” was all she said aloud. Mr. Gold observed her for a moment. A shadow of suspicion passed over his features, but it was gone just as soon as Belle noticed it. He sighed once more and stood, taking his cane from where it leaned against his desk.  
“Right. I suppose we should get started, then.”  
______________________________________________________________________________  
The school wasn’t exactly large. It didn’t have to be, in such a miniscule town. In less than half an hour, Mr. Gold showed Belle the entirety of the main building, and they now had only to explore the newer addition, which contained the main office, gym, and library. The rest of the tour had been informative but uninteresting. Now Belle had a mind full of questions, mostly involving the library. How extensive was it? Could teachers check out books? Having a library in her work place was like heaven to Belle.  
“I presume you’ve already been in the main office, but I suggest you step in tomorrow morning to make sure they’ve changed Mrs Nolan’s mailbox to yours,” Gold was saying. Belle wasn’t actually sure how long he had been talking. “They should have done it already, but those women are completely incompetent. I doubt you’ll ever need to-”  
Gold stopped abruptly, interrupted by the sound of a ringing phone. He looked at Belle with a perturbed expression. She panicked for a moment, unsure why he was looking at her like that until she realized it was her phone. Belle swore she had turned it on do not disturb. The only way a call could have gone through was if someone called her multiple times. She fished through her bag to find it, and found that exactly that had happened. She had four missed calls.  
From Gaston.  
Belle slammed the decline button and shoved the phone back in her purse, electing to pretend that never happened. Gold was still eyeing her with disdain, and she was about to say something when the phone rang again.  
“Excuse me,” she told Gold with an apologetic look, then grabbed the phone and answered it. “Gaston, I’m busy,” she hissed. She heard fumbling on the other end.  
“Belle! I-” Gaston began in a voice that completely aggravated Belle. She didn’t need this right now.  
“Stop. Calling,” she demanded, hanging up immediately. When he tried to call back yet again she turned off the phone. “I’m sorry about that,” she said with a pained expression.  
“No don’t apologize. It must have been quite urgent,” he said dryly, but Belle noticed a smirk growing on his face.  
“It wasn’t,” she said too quickly, and Gold raised an eyebrow. “It was just my dumb ex boyfriend,” she added, praying they could simply move on.  
“Oh?” he said, obviously amused, and Belle sighed. Was he seriously asking after her love life?  
“We were together for a long time, I broke up with him, he’s bitter. That’s all. Can we please move on with the tour?” Belle said hurriedly, gesturing to the library door down the hall.  
“Of course,” he nodded and walked ahead as if nothing had happened, but that damn smirk was still plastered across his face. Not only was he intimidating, he was an arse. Great.  
The library turned out to be quite a disappointment, though the fault was mostly on Belle for building up her expectations. It was an underfunded high school, after all, and by the looks of the gym, most of the money went to promoting the sports teams. It wasn’t a large room and it only contained a few shelves and tables of books. Even then they were mostly text books. The librarian was a mousey, elderly woman who sat at her desk playing solitaire, since there wasn’t much else to do. It was even too small for any sort of proper tour, so Gold simply introduced Belle to the librarian and they went on their way.  
“Well, you look disconcerted,” Gold observed blandly as they re-entered the hallway.  
“I had high expectations for the library, that’s all,” Belle shrugged, as if she could convince herself that it wasn’t a big deal.  
“Ah. Yes, this town has a rather distinct lack of libraries, as it happens. The one downtown has been closed for years,” he told her, and Belle felt her heart sink even more.  
“That’s unfortunate. I’m rather fond of books,” she said awkwardly. Fond didn’t cut it, books had always been her escape. Now it seemed like she was truly stuck in Storybrooke for the foreseeable future. Gold observed her quietly for a moment. Belle thought she saw an expression pass over his face, but it was back to it’s usual stony surface.  
“Well… if you find it’s that impossible to live without a book or two, I have a rather extensive library of my own. I could bring in a few selections for you, just so long as you keep them in good condition and give them back as soon as you’re done,” he offered. His tone was amiable, though she he gave her a once over as if judging her trustworthiness. She might have found that offensive if she hadn’t been so over the moon.  
“That would be amazing!” She couldn’t help but gush. “I’ll be careful, I promise. I always take care of my books.” Gold paused for a moment and nodded wordlessly.

“I’ll bring some in tomorrow then. I have work to do now, good day, Miss French.” With that, he turned away and left Belle standing isolated in the hallway. He was a puzzling man, alright, but Belle could deal with almost anything if it meant some comfort in this odd little town.


End file.
